266 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



THE FULMAR. Procellaria glacialis. In its form and 

 plumage, the Fulmar, or Fulmar Petrel, greatly resembles 

 the Gulls. It is a native of Arctic regions, and abounds in 

 Davis' s Straits and Baffin's Bay. The birds of this species 

 are believed by the whale-fishers to guide them to those 

 places where whales are most numerous, and they collect in 

 multitudes upon the floating carcases of these giants of 

 the deep, tearing up the skin with their hooked beaks, and 

 gorging on the blubber. Off Newfoundland, the Fulmar 

 attends the fishing-vessels, in order to obtain the livers and 

 offal of the cod-fish. In the British Islands it selects a few 

 spots for breeding; these are St. Kilda, Borrera, Soa, and 

 the south isles of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides. The nest, 

 if any, is very slight, and placed upon the grassy ledges of 

 the rock, and a single large white egg is laid by the bird 

 in the beginning of June. 



THE CAPPED PETREL. Procellaria hcesitata. From Mr. 

 YarrelFs "Second Supplement" to his ' History of British 

 Birds/ we learn that in the spring of 1850 a boy captured 

 a bird of the above species on a heath at Southacre, near 

 Swaff ham, in Norfolk ; it was flapping in an exhausted state 

 from one furze-bush to another, until at length it got into 

 one of the bushes, and was secured. The gentleman into 



